Category: Gun Schtuff

BLUF:
They’re not a bad round to carry in a snubbie

PRMRRU-2021Ballistic-test-compressed

Snubnose Revolver Ballistic Gelatin Tests

When I was a kid back in the early 1980s, my parents had some rural land where we spent weekends hiking, hunting, and shooting guns.  A man up the road from my parents’ place was a well known “gun guy.”  He shot constantly and often offered to let young Greg shoot all his cool guns.  One day my Dad and I were visiting him and I saw a gun on his kitchen table that I hadn’t seen before.  I asked if I could look at it.

The man knew I was a safe gun handler, even at my young age.  He said “It’s loaded.  It’s a Smith and Wesson revolver.  You know how to unload it.  Point it towards the ground, unload it, and then you can check it out.”

I took it out of the leather belt holster and carefully unloaded it.  It turned out to be a two-inch Smith and Wesson Model 10 round butt.  It was loaded with target wadcutters.  I knew what the bullets were because I bought a $5.00 box of wadcutter reloads at the local gun shop to shoot in my Smith and Wesson Model 19 every weekend I visited my parents’ rural property.

Even at age 14, I knew that wadcutters were target loads.  My dad’s police revolvers were all filled with the “Treasury Load” 110 grain +P+ jacketed hollowpoints that were in vogue at the time.

The man explained that this was the gun his wife carried when she walked around in the woods on their property.  I asked him about why it was loaded with wadcutters.  He explained that most hollowpoint .38 ammunition didn’t expand well out of two-inch barrels.  He said that the wadcutters would penetrate deeply, would cut a sharp hole, and had mild recoil.

He then made the statement: “Out of a short barrel, the wadcutters perform better than the hollowpoints.”

Internally, I laughed.  Everyone knew hollowpoints were better for defensive use than target wadcutters.

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MD County Sued over Gun Pamphlet Mandate as Anti’s Ramp Up Rhetoric

Maryland’s Anne Arundel County has been hit with a federal lawsuit for allegedly violating the First Amendment rights of local gun shops with a mandate those businesses post and make available county-produced “gun safety” literature that discusses suicide prevention.

The Baltimore Sun Editorial Board declared in a Tuesday editorial the lawsuit “screams the kind of Second Amendment absolutism that only hurts their cause.”

“It strikes us as roughly the equivalent of requiring employers to warn workers about safety hazards, and seems no greater a burden than providing a printed receipt,” the editorial says. “It’s certainly far less onerous than the health warnings required on each and every pack of cigarettes sold in the United States.”

Plaintiffs in the case are Maryland Shall Issue and four gun dealers: Field Traders and Pasadena Arms, both of Pasadena; Cindy’s Hot Shots of Glen Burnie; and Worth-A-Shot of Millersville, the editorial noted.

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Houston-area company says Biden Administration’s ‘ghost gun’ policy will put them out of business

A Houston area gun parts manufacturer is facing off against the Justice Department and the ATF this week in one of the first lawsuits in the country challenging what it says is an unlawful Biden administration policy that stripped the company of its livelihood in violation of the Second Amendment.

The legal team behind the federal lawsuit includes Michael Sullivan, a former acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who served under President George W. Bush. It targets Attorney General Merrick Garland and the current head of ATF on behalf of Division 80, a company in Galveston County that makes gun kits, and just registered as a limited liability company in November. The plaintiff doesn’t appear to have a website, an address or any trappings of a business.

Manufacturers make gun parts known as “80 percenters,” “lower receivers,” or “receiver blanks” that customers can purchase to assemble their own firearms. They come in kits that shipped to gun stores across the country are sometimes called as “ghost guns” because it’s difficult for law enforcement to trace their origins. The businesses that make these parts are not regulated by the ATF and do not require a federal firearms license to sell them as do gun stores.

Sullivan, who lives in Boston, and Austin-based co-counsel Cory Liu, who previously worked as assistant general counsel to Gov. Greg Abbott and as a law clerk to Sen. Ted Cruz, said in a joint statement the aim of this suit is “to prevent the Biden Administration from politically weaponizing the ATF and adopting an unlawful (regulation, know as the) Final Rule without Congress’s approval.” The company thinks the new regulation “unlawfully seeks to put law-abiding American companies like Division 80 out of business.”

President Joe Biden had promised on the campaign trail and in subsequent statements that the White House would push Congress to close the loophole that allows the sale of the kits. But in his first year and a half in office, no such law has passed.

The lawsuit highlights what the company sees as the White House’s backdoor solution to this policy conundrum — businesses like Division 80 were forced by the Biden’s Justice Department and ATF to heed a revised federal regulation that limits their rights. The company says this new rule “unlawfully rewrites federal law and repudiates ATF’s longstanding legal position on receiver blanks.”

Businesses were forced to comply with the new mandate that the former classifications of these parts are no longer “valid or authoritative,” despite the fact that no law prevents them from operating, the company says.

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First prosecution of San Diego’s “ghost gun” ban shows how worthless the law really is

San Diego, California is one of several cities in the state that have banned the possession of “ghost guns” in recent months. Anyone caught with an unserialized firearm in the city is now subject to criminal charges, but the first case to actually get to the sentencing phase is a perfect demonstration of just how useless the new ordinance really is.

The ordinance, authored by San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert (a name that sounds like it would also be good for a Disney villain), in essence mirrors existing California law, which already prohibits the possession of an unserialized firearm. The San Diego ordinance specifically creates a misdemeanor offense to possess or sell any firearm that does not have a serial number on it, which is supposed to make criminals think twice about carrying a home-built gun around. As of March of this year, the law wasn’t having any impact on violent crime, with homicides up 80% compared to the same time period in 2021 and 77 unserialized firearms seized by police. There were also 295 serialized firearms seized by police, which is another sign that going after “ghost guns” isn’t going to stop the individuals committing the shootings in the city.

But none of that matters to the virtue-signaling politicians in San Diego, including von Wilpert, who are instead now eagerly singing the praises of the “ghost gun” ordinance now that someone’s been sentenced for violating the law.

“The city’s novel ghost gun ordinance is an effective tool for removing untraceable firearms from the hands of criminals,” City Attorney Mara W. Elliott said. “We thank Councilmember Marni von Wilpert for bringing forward this ordinance, which keeps San Diego at the forefront of our nation’s battle against gun violence.”

… “It’s clear from this conviction that San Diego’s landmark ghost gun law is starting to work to stop the proliferation of dangerous, untraceable firearms in our community,” said von Wilpert.

Is it though? I realize I haven’t actually said what the sentence the defendant received here, so let’s delve a little deeper into the events that led to 23-year old Rene Orozco having the dubious distinction of being the subject of a press release by the city attorney.

Orozco’s arrest apparently didn’t make the news at the time, but according to the Elliott’s account he was arrested after fleeing from police and leading them on a car chase through San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood, allegedly tossing the unserialized gun as he then continued to try to elude officers on foot.

Would Orozco would have avoided arrest and prosecution if the gun he’d been caught with had a serial number? Of course not. So what exactly is the point of a misdemeanor charge for possessing a “ghost gun” when he could already be charged with illegal possession of a weapon for simply having a gun in the first place. Then there are the charges of eluding police, tampering with evidence, and any number of traffic misdemeanors that were committed during the police pursuit. But the City Attorney needs to show that this new ordinance is working, and so Orozco was charged with having a ghost gun, and now gets to experience firsthand the draconian punishment that will surely cause him to rethink the decisions he made.

He was sentenced last week to 45 days in custody and one year of probation. As a result, his driver’s license will be suspended from six months and he is prohibited from owning firearms for a year.

45 days in custody with good credit time means that Orozco will likely spend about three weeks in the county lockup, which doesn’t sound like much time considering how scary “ghost guns” are supposed to be. And again, he could have gotten that same sentence just by charging him with misdemeanor crimes in California state statute that have nothing to do with unserialized firearms. What’s the point?

San Diego’s “ghost gun” ordinance is pure political theater; designed to have an impact on the electorate, not armed criminals. As long as politicians like von Wilpert can convince constituents that she’s “doing something” to address their fears about violent crime, she doesn’t have to bother coming up with doing something that actually works. And in California, “doing something” means putting another gun control law on the books that at best is worthless, and far too often ends up harming the law-abiding instead of curtailing violent criminals.

How a tiny device undermines gun bans entirely

There are those who seem to genuinely believe that gun bans actually work. They center much of their personalities around it, or so it seems. They think that if you ban a certain type of gun, you don’t have to worry about that type of gun anymore.

That’s what’s driving the desire to ban so-called ghost guns right now, as a matter of fact.

The problem is guns, like water, follow the path of least resistance. I’ve written about this previously. Right now, what you see isn’t necessarily what you’ll see after a gun ban.

Take machine guns.

They’ve been heavily restricted since 1934 and, in essence, banned since 1986. You can sort of get your hands on them still, but you need a whole lot of money to do so legally.

And yet, we have this guy.

More details have been released about the arrest of one of Mobile’s most wanted, including how a glock was modified to function as a machine gun.

Trenteon King was arrested Friday, April 29 after an off-duty Chickasaw police officer spotted him walking out with stolen items at Walmart off Rangeline Road. King was detained by the officer who found King with a firearm.

An Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives agent determined that King possessed an unregistered firearm, a machine gun made from a modified Glock.

If that sounds familiar, it should. One of the alleged shooters in Sacramento also had such a weapon.

Meanwhile, the ATF is apparently seeing a lot more of these.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating more incidents involving a quarter-sized device that transforms a semi-automatic weapon into what’s qualified as a machine gun.…

The switches aren’t new, but they’ve been on the rise recently.

“We are seeing them trickle from West to East,” said French. “We started seeing a great majority of them in Memphis and the western parts of Tennessee all over the past year and a half. Within the past year though, we’ve seen a tremendous increase.”

There are over 80 open investigations for the ATF Nashville Division, with 100 recovered so far. There are 1,500 ATF investigations involving the devices nationwide. Some of those cases come from Alabama.

Now, understand that 100 such weapons in an area like Nashville is a lot, all things considered, and 1,500 nationwide investigations isn’t a drop in the bucket. Of course, we’re still missing a lot of context, which I’m never comfortable with, but what we do have is interesting.

Especially since this isn’t something you or I can pick up.

See, full-auto weapons are basically banned for folks like you or me. We can’t get our hands on them. We also can’t lawfully get a switch to drop in our Glocks and then go rock-and-roll. It’s not something we can do, even if we’re willing to accept and jump through all the relevant hoops.

As a result, we’re getting outgunned because of the machine gun ban.

We simply can’t meet the threat that seems to be presented before us. If full-auto weapons are so deadly that they’re basically forbidden for you or me to have, how are law-abiding citizens not put at risk via this gun ban?

What’s more, how will more gun bans make it any better?

The short answer is that they won’t, which is why it’s time to stop pushing them as the solution for every ill.

33 months of 1 million-plus gun sale

Sales of firearms have fallen from their recent highs but are continuing in a nearly three-year-long string of 1.25 million sales a month.

A new analysis of FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System data indicates that gun sale background checks have crossed the 1.25 million threshold for 33 straight months, sustaining the highest-ever era of gun purchases.

And, according to industry officials, 1.25 million may be the bottom in a “new normal” for presale background checks, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

“April’s NSSF adjusted NICS figures of 1,359,908 shows that there is a steady and sustained appetite for lawful firearm ownership in America. April’s figure continues the streak of more than 1 million background checks for the sale of a firearm for 33 months and demonstrates that the firearm industry continues to meet America’s strong demand for lawful firearm ownership,” said Mark Oliva, the spokesman for the industry representative and research center.

“It is clear that those looking for the ‘new normal’ of firearm sales following the two outsized years of 2020 and 2021 can find all the evidence needed to know that law-abiding citizens are turning out by the millions each month to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” he added.

Those two years saw the highest-ever number of FBI background checks for gun sales due to violent Black Lives Matter protests, surging crime, and the presidential election. During that period, gun sales surged, especially among women and black Americans, due to safety concerns.

And they have stayed high, though not at the 2020 and 2021 peaks, said NSSF. Helping drive sales has been the elimination of restrictions on carrying firearms in half of the states and President Joe Biden’s constant call for gun control and bans.

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Well, .277 Fury basically duplicates 270 Winchester (130/135 gr bullet @ 3,000 fps) specs in a smaller length cartridge in a rifle with a shorter barrel. And the rifle is a SiG MCX Spear, so….?

How good is Army’s new gun? We don’t know

XM5 Rifle on display at the Pentagon.

There are a lot of people who look to the United States Armed Forces for a certain degree of guidance on weapons. If the Army uses it, they’re more than happy to pick up the civilian version of the weapon. After all, the military does test their weapons fairly extensively–though that testing has been interesting in the past.

Still, a lot of people trust it.

Now, the Army is looking at a new rifle. However, as Military.com notes, there are questions that we simply can’t get answers to.

The new guns and ammunition the Army just married and is expected to issue to combat arms units within the next decade will require soldiers to carry an even heavier load.

But information on how those weapons should outperform the guns they’re replacing — the justification for troops to shoulder extra weight on top of mountains of gear already injuring soldiers — is classified.

In April, the Army announced that Sig Sauer will produce replacements for the M4 rifle and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW, starting with a trial run of about 40 new guns late next year. Production is expected to ramp up when the Army opens a new ammo plant to produce the new 6.8mm rounds for those weapons around 2026.

Army officials have touted that the new XM5, the M4’s replacement, and XM250, set to replace the SAW, pack a much harder punch and will improve the combat performance of ground troops. But thus far, the service has declined to disclose evidence that those weapons outperform the M4 and SAW, including how far they can shoot accurately. And it’s unclear whether the Army has verified the ranges at which those new weapons can engage an enemy before committing to a multimillion-dollar contract.

Throughout history, the average a soldier carried was about 55 lbs. The Roman legionnaire? About 55 lbs. The medieval man-at-arms? 55 lbs.

And so on through history.

Yet, these days, loads of 150 lbs aren’t exactly uncommon. That’s three times the amount troops historically carried.

Granted, we have a lot of technology that helps make those troops much more effective than those of bygone eras had, but someone still has to carry it.

So now they’re going to have to carry even more?

That might make sense if the new weapons are that much more effective, but are they? We know that 6.8 tends to have more of a punch. It looks like accuracy is about the same.

Yet that’s just the ballistics of the round itself. We don’t know if the weapons make good use of that potential or not, which doesn’t really make that much sense to me.

I get keeping at least some of your capabilities classified, but our enemies have long known just how accurate and powerful our various firearms were for years. We openly published this information and the civilian-legal versions of the same rifles backed that information up.

So why is this version classified?

Truth be told, I don’t like it, but I’m not overly worried. While I can’t help but raise my eyebrow at Sig being the provider of both the sidearm used by the military and now the primary weapon system for the Army, the truth is that Sig produces good weapons, as a general rule. It’s unlikely the guns actually suck or anything.

Still, for people who know about firearms, the idea of our troops potentially going into harm’s way with a weapon we know so little about is a point of concern. After all, this is still the Department of Defense. Anyone familiar with the development of the Bradley knows just how that can go.

Then again, since this is basically a variant of the Sig MCX platform, we shouldn’t worry too much.

That doesn’t address the weight issue, though. Our guys are already carrying too much weight as it is. The additional weight from switching from 5.56 to 6.8 for the same number of rounds is something that might end up being too much.

APRIL GUN SALE DATA 3RD HIGHEST ON RECORD

The nation’s firearm background check system saw some of its heaviest usage on record last month, logging the third busiest April on record.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System saw 2,534,057 checks initiated in April 2022, one of the highest figures for that month logged since NICS was established in 1998. When compared to April 2021’s NICS figure of 3,485,016, it stands at a 27.3 percent decrease but, when stacked against the other nearly two dozen Aprils on record, it comes in at third place, well higher than any pre-COVID year.

Looking further, when the data is crunched by the National Shooting Sports Foundation to remove gun permit checks/rechecks to distill the data into likely firearm transfers, the figure stands at 1,359,908 which is a shallower 19.7 percent drop compared to the April 2021 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,694,118. As with the raw data, the adjusted figures are the third-highest since the program was established.

 

NICS April figures
April 2022’s NICS background checks numbers for likely gun sales through FFLs is the third highest on record, only bested by the figures for 2020 and 2021, years fueled by election-year politics, COVID uncertainty, and widespread civil unrest in urban centers. (Chart: NSSF) 

A NEW NORMAL

“April’s NSSF Adjusted NICS figures of 1,359,908 shows that there is a steady and sustained appetite for lawful firearm ownership in America,” Mark Oliva, NSSF’s director of public affairs, told Guns.com about the latest NICS numbers. “April’s figure continues the streak of more than 1 million background checks for the sale of a firearm for 33 months and demonstrates that the firearm industry continues to meet America’s strong demand for lawful firearm ownership.

“It is clear that those looking for the ‘new normal’ of firearm sales following the two outsized years of 2020 and 2021 can find all the evidence needed to know that law-abiding citizens are turning out by the millions each month to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” said Oliva.

Not even if you paid me to hold it for a picture.

So You Found a Gun in a Public Restroom – – Now What?

GONE TO DROP TROU AND FOUND A GUN IN A PUBLIC LAVATORY? HERE ARE THE INS AND OUT OF SAFELY ADDRESSING THE SITUATION.

Finding a firearm in a public restroom is unfortunately not as uncommon as you may think and with CCW increasing across the board, it’s something you may come across yourself.

The problem starts when someone has to drop trou outside their home. The vast majority of on-person pistols ride in holsters that attach to a pants belt, regardless if it’s designed for inside- or outside-the-waistband. Many of these holsters don’t have positive retention, especially the soft-sided IWB variety, and rely on the pressure between your belt and your body to keep it in place. Sometimes this means a pistol flops when pants come off.

Consequently, some people remove their guns (with or without the holster) while they do their business to prevent it from falling onto the hard tile floor. So they take that pistol and place it on a toilet tank, commercial toilet paper holder, or even hang it on the hook on the back of the stall door. And forget about it. This is especially common with new or infrequent carriers. This article covers the mechanics of what you should do when carrying in public restrooms.

We know that some will be surprised one could be so mindless as to forget a Stacatto in a stall, but people leave their children accidentally in the back of cars all the time.

If you find a gun in a public bathroom, let’s talk about what to do.

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First Look: Walther PDP F Series
Created with over a century of engineering & precision to specifically work with a woman’s hand.

Walther PDP F Series

New from Walther is the PDP F-Series of pistols, designed for female shooters who want the versatility, dependability and effectiveness of the Walther PDP, but in a package specifically designed around their unique needs.

The new F-Series is built to meet the demands of female shooters. Walther has completely re-engineered the ergonomics of the grip to be designed for the exact biomechanics of women’s hands. The new, patented operating system of the PDP F Series reduces the amount of force needed to operate the slide. In addition to this, the new PDP F Series has a reduced grip circumference and trigger reach. F Series pistols retain other features from the PDP lineup including compatibility with holsters for both the full and compact size PDP, as well has compact PDP magazine compatibility and are red-dot ready, right out of the box. When paired with the other  performance features of the original PDP, it means the F-Series pistol is the great choice for all women who are interested in the shooting sports.

Walther Shooting team member, Olympian and Firearms Instructor Gabby Franco had this to say about it, “The PDP F-series is the result of a revolutionary approach to creating a pistol with female shooters in mind. Walther Arms took the difficult task of developing a mid-sized frame handgun that offers high ammo capacity with a smaller grip, shorter trigger, and excellent ergonomics like no other. The F-series is the best tool in the market for self-defense, law enforcement, target shooting, and competitive shooting. It makes me proud to be part of a project to bring a pistol that contributes to many women’s quests to become better shooters.”

PDP F Series Specifications

  • Caliber: 9mm
  • Barrel Length: 3.5 or 4 inches
  • Slide Length: 6.5 inches
  • Trigger Pull: 5 pounds
  • Magazine Capacity: 15 + 1 rounds
  • Magazines Included: 2
  • Sights: White Dot Adjustable

MSRP for either the 3.5 or 4 inch barrel version of the PDP F Series is $699, and more information on these pistols and other products from Walther can be found at waltherarms.com.

MINI REVOLVER MAKER NAA NOW EMPLOYEE-OWNED

Utah-based North American Arms announced on Tuesday the company is now employee-owned and intends to keep on making neat little guns.

Sandy Chisholm, NAA’s president for the past 30 years, has sold the company to an employee stock trust and left Mike Griffin as President and CEO. According to a statement from NAA, the trust will annually “distribute equity ownership pieces of the company to the employees” over the next several years at no cost to the employees.

Chisholm, who purchased the gunmaker best known for its tiny revolvers in 1992, said he chose the exit strategy rather than sell the company outright to other manufacturers in the firearms industry.

“Unfortunately, that would almost certainly lead to a relocation of this business and the loss of jobs for all those who I want to protect and reward,” said Chisholm of his distaste to have another gunmaker gobble up NAA. “This route assures that stability.”

Formed originally in Salt Lake City around 1971 as the Rocky Mountain Arms Corp, the company that today is NAA was founded by Richard J. Casull, who was also the father of the .454 Casull cartridge.

A gunsmith gifted with both exceptional intellectual ability and creative productivity, Casull was the holder of more than 20 patents including several filed in the 70s for small, single-action revolvers with a floating firing pin and an improved cylinder lock system. Rocky Mountain eventually changed its name to North American Arms around 1975 while Casull later went on to found Freedom Arms in Wyoming, with NAA concentrating their efforts on mini-revolvers while the newer FA went on to produce more full-sized guns.

As for Chisholm, he said he will remain active on the boards of NAA and of the two industry associations, NSSF and SAAMI. “I’m not done with this industry yet,” he said.

Who are the ‘ghosts’ in ghost guns? Firearms manufacturer disputes federal crackdown on untraceable weapons

On a quiet street in Rochester, Beaver County, the Master-Ammo Co. operates out of a cramped garage in an unassuming white house, its machine room strewn with power tools, boxes of bullets and shotgun shells.

Under fluorescent lights sits Sam Piccinini, a gunsmith who’s dealt in weapons and ammunition for nearly a decade. On a metal shelf behind him, a dull black AR-15-style rifle rests flat on its side.

Mr. Piccinini holds up a silver-colored 80% finished receiver, the part of a firearm that contains its trigger assembly. It is the foundation of a self-assembled weapon that’s sold in kits – dubbed more recently as “ghost guns” — because the kits are not given serial numbers and are sold without background checks, making them virtually untraceable for someone looking to build one.

To this Western Pennsylvania gun merchant, a new federal crackdown that blames ghost guns for a spike in U.S. shootings is rooted in bad information about the weapons and who buys them, despite supporters of stricter gun control lauding it as a step toward curbing violence.

To make a comparison, Mr. Piccinini holds up in his other hand a finished receiver, this one black. Lasered into its side are the words “Let’s Go Brandon,” a phrase used by some to denounce President Joe Biden. Unlike the 80% receiver, this one has noticeably defined and machined grooves that allow for a barrel and other parts to be installed to make it an operating firearm. And it contains a serial number.

On April 11, Mr. Biden’s U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had submitted to the Federal Register a final regulatory rule designed to curb the proliferation of ghost guns nationwide amid a sharp increase in shootings.


Sam Piccinini talks about the milling process required to complete work on a lower receiver on Thursday, April 21, 2022, in his store in Rochester.Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Under the rule, the unfinished ghost gun kit would be regulated the same as the finished product, in part an effort to keep untraceable weapons from being built for criminal activity.

Mr. Piccinini isn’t buying it.

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(It was designed for the civilian market first)

The Army’s Next Generation XM5 Rifle Shows The Importance Of A Strong Civilian Gun Market

When I was watching the press briefing that announced the Army’s new XM5 rifle, there was one big thing that stood out to me: our role in making it happen. And by “our” I literally mean you and me, the civilian firearms owners who buy firearms and accessories.

During the press briefing, Brigadier General Larry Q. Burris, the Army’s Soldier Lethality Cross-Team Director, said . . .

…we arrived at this point in record time because we leveraged middle-tier of acquisition rapid fielding authorities to enable speed and flexibility…working with our partners in tandem in a process that would have traditionally been linear, and may have taken 8-10 years to complete. And we arrived at this point in only 27 months, and that’s simply remarkable.” He also said: “It is necessary for us to develop capabilities at the speed of war. Necessity drives invention. In this case, necessity drives innovation.

As the United States pivots away from fighting low-intensity conflicts against non-state actors and even “goat herders” and turns to face the growing threats of near peer competitors like China and maybe Russia, we’re seeing the need to come up with a better rifle that gives U.S. troops not just a fighting chance, but an overwhelming advantage. The M4 was starting to run into its limitations even in fights against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, so it was definitely time for a change.

MCX-SPEAR XM5

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AK is pleased the 24 is still popular:

Combinations in Pairs: Two Savage 24s

THE OLD DO-ALL COMBO GUN: SAVAGE MODEL 24 REVIEW

Not sure whether to take a rifle or shotgun afield? That’s where combination guns come into play –that is, rifle/shotgun duos. None have been as accessible, affordable, and reliable over the years as the utilitarian Savage Model 24. Here’s why the little double holds a special allure to those who fire, collect, or otherwise adore them over 80 years after their introduction.
MEET THE SAVAGE 24

An over-under shotgun/rifle combination? Yes, please. The Model 24, available in a laundry list of chambering options, has never been more sought after than it is now, almost 85 years after its initial introduction. Remember the aptly named Stevens Model 22-410? The same year that double went out of production, Savage’s Model 24 was born.

Savage Model 24
The Savage Model 24 offered a versatile hunting platform that gave shooters the choice between shotgun and rifle barrels in the same gun. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)

The basis of the combination gun is a standing-breech, break-action system with a rebounding hammer. Naturally, the first was a .22 short, long, or long rifle barrel over a .410 bore. Weighing some 7 pounds and measuring only 41 inches, the combo solved the problems of whether to bring a rifle or shotgun afield, adding the best of both worlds into one handy platform.

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M&P 15/22s Banned At Appleseed Events After Out Of Battery and “Run Away” Discharges

While I can’t seem to tear myself away from Bearing Arms long enough to head west to the home range at Ramseur as much as I would like, I am still an instructor at Project Appleseed. In my opinion, it offers some of the best positional rifle marksmanship training you can obtain anywhere for the price, and you’re treated to an incredible civics lesson with the cost of admission. I highly recommend it to everyone.

A warning was issued a short time ago on the Appleseed instructor forum that the popular Smith & Wesson 15-22 is banned from Project Appleseed events nationwide after a series of out of battery discharges recorded at several events.

I’m not going to embellish or sugarcoat anything for you; this is the notice, as it was written.

To: All Appleseed Instructors

Subject: TEMPORARY BAN ON SMITH & WESSON M&P 15/22 USE AT APPLESEED

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, THE USE OF SMITH AND WESSON M&P 15/22’S AT AN APPLESEED IS HEREBY BANNED UNTIL SMITH & WESSON FORMALLY INVESTIGATES THE PROBLEM AND ISSUES AN OFFICIAL CORRECTIVE ACTION. THE AOC WILL NOTIFY THE CADRE WHEN THIS BAN IS LIFTED.

The AOC has received a rash of reports regarding safety issues with the Smith & Wesson M&P 15/22, including a shooter getting injured as a result of an out-of-battery discharge (see reports below).

As responsible Instructors, we have a duty to maintain safety at our events. If we know a rifle to be potentially unsafe, we shouldn’t allow it on the line at all.

At this time the least risk course of action would be to exclude the Smith & Wesson M&P 15/22 from future events until Smith & Wesson formally investigates the problem and issues an official corrective action.

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There’s an old joke:
Want a 5.56 NATO chamber? Fire 1000 rounds through your .223.
Nowadays, it’s less expensive to just have the throat reamed.

.223 Remington vs. 5.56 NATO: What You Don’t Know Could Hurt You

Is firing a 5.56 NATO cartridge in your .223 Remington chambered AR15 dangerous? Or do Internet forum-ninjas and ammunition companies selling you commercial ammo instead of surplus overstate the dangers?  Believe it or not, a real danger exists, and some gun owners who think they are doing the right thing may not be safe.

The Cartridges

The .223 Remington and 5.56×45 NATO cartridges are very similar, and externally appear the same.  But there are some differences that lie beneath the surface.

The 5.56 case has thicker walls to handle higher pressures, meaning the interior volume of the case is smaller than that of a .223.   This will alter the loading data used when reloading 5.56 brass to .223 specs.

Some 5.56 loads have a slightly longer overall length than commercial .223 loads.

The Chambers

The significant difference between the .223 Rem and 5.56 NATO lies in the rifles, rather than the cartridges themselves.  Both the .223 and 5.56 rounds will chamber in rifles designed for either cartridge, but the critical component, leade, will be different in each rifle.

The leade is the area of the barrel in front of the chamber prior to where the rifling begins.  This is where the loaded bullet is located when a cartridge is chambered.  The leade is frequently called the “throat.”

On a .223 Remington spec rifle, the leade will be 0.085”.  This is the standard described by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, Inc. (SAAMI).  The leade in a 5.56 NATO spec rifle is 0.162”, or almost double the leade of the .223 rifle.

A shorter leade in a SAAMI spec rifle creates a situation where the bullet in a 5.56 NATO round, when chambered, can contact the rifling prior to being fired.  By having contact with the rifling prematurely (at the moment of firing), chamber pressure can be dramatically increased, creating the danger of a ruptured case or other cartridge/gun failure.

The reverse situation, a .223 Rem round in a 5.56 NATO gun, isn’t dangerous.  The leade is longer, so a slight loss in velocity and accuracy may be experienced, but there is not a danger of increased pressures and subsequent catastrophic failure.

How serious is the danger of firing 5.56 ammo in .223 guns?  Dangerous enough that the SAAMI lists 5.56 military ammo as being not for use in .223 firearms in the technical data sheet titled “Unsafe Firearm-Ammunition Combinations.”

ATK, the parent company of ammunition manufacturers Federal Cartridge Company and Speer, published a bulletin entitled “The Difference Between 223 Rem and 5.56 Military Cartridges.”  In this bulletin, ATK stated using 5.56 ammo in a .223 rifle could result in “…primer pocket gas leaks, blown cartridge case heads, and gun functioning issues.”

However, the danger may be lower than SAAMI or ATK suggest.  In Technical Note #74 from ArmaLite, the company states “millions of rounds of NATO ammunition have been fired safely in Eagle Arms and ArmaLite’s® SAAMI chambers over the past 22 years,” and they have not had any catastrophic failures.

According to ArmaLite:

“Occasionally a non-standard round (of generally imported) ammunition will fit too tightly in the leade, and resistance to early bullet movement can cause elevated chamber pressures.  These pressures are revealed by overly flattened primers or by powder stains around the primer that reveal leaking gasses.”

What Do You Have?

So, if you own a rifle chambered for the .223 for 5.56, do you know for which caliber it is really chambered?

Many match rifles are chambered in .223 Remington (SAAMI specs) for tighter tolerances, and theoretically better accuracy.

Many of the AR-15’s currently sold on the market are made for the 5.56 NATO cartridge.  If you own one of these, you should be fine with any .223 or 5.56 ammunition.

However, ATK dropped this bomb in the bulletin on the .223/5.56:

“It is our understanding that commercially available AR15’s and M16’s – although some are stamped 5.56 Rem on the receiver – are manufactured with .223 chambers.”

So, even if your AR is stamped 5.56, is it really?  Check your owner’s manual or call the company directly and make sure you get an answer you feel comfortable with.

As if the confusion regarding the .223 vs 5.56 chambers wasn’t enough, there is a third possibility in the mix, that is being used by at least one major manufacturer.  The .223 Wylde chamber is a modified SAAMI-spec .223 chamber that allows for the safe use of 5.56 NATO rounds, but maintains tighter tolerances for better accuracy.

Yeah, yeah… What’s the bottom line?

Here’s the bottom line.  If you want to follow the safest possible course, always shoot .223 Remington ammunition.  The .223 Rem cartridge will safely shoot in any rifle chambered for the .223 or 5.56.

If you want to shoot 5.56 NATO rounds, make sure you have a rifle designed for the 5.56 military cartridge.  Shooting 5.56 in a normal .223 Rem rifle can result in bad things.

MORE ON SIG’S $4.5 BILLION ARMY RIFLE, MACHINE GUN CONTRACT

Sig Sauer’s huge win in the Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program award this week, by the numbers.

The New Hampshire-based gun maker, which originally started off making components for West German Sig P226s back in the 1980s, now very much stands on its own and, coupled with the 2017 award to fulfill the Pentagon’s pistol needs, is set up to provide both the standard rifle and light machine guns to the American military.

With that, here are some interesting data, dates, and figures to keep in mind on the NGSW contracts:

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